London to Cape Town – January 7th, 1963

Eric Jackson and Ken Chambers arrived in Dunkerque in the early hours of the second day of their marathon trip. The Channel crossing had been uneventful and they were looking forward to a trouble-free quick drive down through France and Spain to catch another boat to Morocco and then on to Algeria. They had been told by George Hinchcliffe (who held the London to Cape Town record at that time) that this was the best route to take. Things didn’t quite go according to plan.

As it says in Petrol in My Blood:

“… the trip would have been scuppered there and then. I had a family and a business back in Yorkshire that I planned to see again in the near future; being a prisoner in an Algerian jail at best, or shot at worst, were certainly not in my plans. I don’t think Ken fancied those options much either.”

They had set off from London at four in the afternoon on the previous day and already there was talk of jail and being shot. This was nothing compared to what was to come…